''Polydora'' is a genus of annelid worms. It contains marine polychaete species that live in mud, holes bored in rocks, and holes bored in the shells of

shellfish Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...

Some shell- and rock-boring polydora worms leave a characteristic double hole in the rock and shells in which they burrow.

Etymology

From the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

Πολυδωρη, from Polydora, daughter of Tethys and

Ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

in Greek mythology.

Economic effects

Polydora species are a major economic issue for parts of the shellfish industry. Some species cause "mudblister" on oysters, living inside the oyster shell and roughening its interior surface. Although this makes the oyster grow much more slowly, and makes the shell ugly and harder to sell, the meat of the oyster is still fit to eat.

List of ''Polydora'' species

* '' Polydora aciculata'' * '' Polydora aggregata'' * '' Polydora anoculata'' * '' Polydora armata'' Langerhans, 1880 * '' Polydora barbilla'' * '' Polydora bioccipitalis'' * '' Polydora blakei'' * '' Polydora brachycephala'' * '' Polydora caeca'' * '' Polydora cardalia'' * '' Polydora caulleryi'' * '' Polydora ciliata'' * '' Polydora cirrosa'' * '' Polydora colonia'' Moore * '' Polydora commensalis'' Andrews * '' Polydora concharum'' * '' Polydora convexa'' * '' Polydora cornuta'' Bosc, 1802 * '' Polydora elegantissima'' * '' Polydora flava'' Claparede, 1870 * '' Polydora giardi'' * ''

Polydora glycymerica ''Polydora glycymerica'' is a species of annelid worm in the family Spionidae, native to the northwestern Pacific Ocean, where it lives commensally in association with a bivalve mollusc, usually ''Glycymeris yessoensis'' but occasionally with ...

'' Radashevsky, 1993 * '' Polydora gracilis'' * '' Polydora hartmanae'' * '' Polydora haswelli'' * '' Polydora hermaphroditica'' Hannerz, 1956 * '' Polydora heterochaeta'' * '' Polydora hoplura'' Claparede, 1870 * '' Polydora kaneohe'' Ward, 1981 * '' Polydora latispinosa'' * '' Polydora ligni'' Webster * '' Polydora limicola'' * '' Polydora magna'' * '' Polydora narica'' * '' Polydora neocardalia'' * '' Polydora notialis'' * '' Polydora nuchalis'' * '' Polydora pilikia'' Ward, 1981 * '' Polydora pilocollaris'' * '' Polydora posthamata'' Jones, 1962 * '' Polydora protuberata'' * '' Polydora pygidialis'' * '' Polydora quadrilobata'' Jacobi * '' Polydora socialis'' (Schmarda) * '' Polydora spongicola'' * '' Polydora tentaculata'' * '' Polydora tetrabranchia'' * '' Polydora tridenticulata'' Woodwick, 1964 * '' Polydora websteri'' Hartman, 1943 * '' Polydora woodwicki''

References

External links

* Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2015. The Animal Diversity Web (online)
''Polydora''
Polychaete genera Aquaculture {{annelid-stub